


Rebirth

by qriusGate



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 07:30:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13782732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qriusGate/pseuds/qriusGate
Summary: You and Cubone have known each other for your whole life...what about the next?





	Rebirth

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Cubone-Wants-a-Professor-To-Resurrect-His-Mother-at-The-Cinnabar-Pokemon-Lab](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/359433) by Unknown. 



Hey kid,

I’m not the most eloquent writer in the world, and my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but I thought I should leave you a copy of my memories, just in case someday you ever want to read about your past.  
______________________________________________________________________________  
The first time I met you, you weren’t even old enough to be a trainer yet. You and your father had moved in recently, and you were still getting adjusted. You used to pass by the Volunteer House on your way to school, and you would always stand on your toes to peek over the fence or peer into the windows to see the pokemon. The first time you came in, you absolutely fell in love with Cubone. Maybe it was because you had both...gone through something similar...but you both got along almost immediately. It was a blessing to us all, really. Cubone had only recently started feeling better, but we were still worried and didn’t want him to rebound. And then this kid comes in and Cubone is suddenly the happiest little pokemon I ever did see! It got to the point where he learned when you’d come in, and every day at 3:42 exactly he would jump onto the bench by the window and just wait to see your shadow pass by. He knew your shadow too! I know because I was sitting with him one day and what must have been 23 other kids passed by on their way home from school, and he didn’t react at all until your shadow was visible. Hahaha, there was one time when you were talking with a friend before coming in, and you paused right at that point, and poor Cubone went ballistic! He was jumping, running around, getting his favorite toy, and waiting at the door. He was so excited his emotions rose to a fever pitch, he was crying for sheer joy and anticipation. It was like he was using Thrash! He nearly fainted just waiting for that door to open. Then there were the days when you were sick and couldn’t make it, and Cubone cried after realizing that you weren’t going to come that day. Honestly it made us all cry a bit seeing him like that. But then you’d come in again a week later and he’d be back to being the happiest little scamp ever born! It was one of the most adorable friendships I’d ever seen. To be fair, though, you don’t usually see a human toddler and a baby pokemon rough-housing together, it was pretty cute.

Then you came in one day. I overheard you telling Cubone that your Dad got a really cool job at a place called Silph Co. as a scientist, studying ghost type pokemon and their effects on the world. You were trying to sound overjoyed and excited at what was very clearly a cool job for your Dad, but the sound of tears being shed and sniffles being sniffed kind of gave away the fact that you were upset (and if I could tell, you know the all of the Pokemon did too). You were leaving in a month, after school ended for the summer, and then you were heading off to Saffron. You’d be able to come visit, you said, but clearly not as often as before.

I knew where this was going. I had seen it all too many times before. One of 4 different situations would happen:  
You would leave, and never come back. You would be sad for a long while, but after many years would grow up and meet new pokemon, with only a tinkling of a memory of that old kinship you had. Cubone would similarly wallow in depression for a long time, and only after many new friendships would he learn to trust again, be willing to develop a pure, true friendship again that went down to his very core.  
You would leave, and come back every once and a while. Eventually you would adopt Cubone and you two would be happy and enjoy life every day together, but until then I knew Cubone would spend every day waiting for you, only truly reveling in life while you were there, surviving the rest for the sole sake of seeing you again.  
You would adopt Cubone before you left and similarly spend every day together, with no pain of separation, except for Cubone waiting for you to come home from school (unless you go to one of those new schools that allow you to bring your pokemon to school...I wish they had those when I was a kid)  
But you were too young to be a trainer, so you couldn’t adopt Cubone. It would have to be your Dad.

You all came to visit me a few times a year after that. Cubone seemed happy to see me, too. Both of you gradually grew up into a fine Trainer/Pokemon pair. You even caught other pokemon that Cubone could play with! I was happy to attend your graduation ceremony and wave you off as a newly officiated Pokemon Research assistant, helping Professor Oak find out more about Pokemon around the world! It reminded me of my youth when I found Mew’s nesting grounds and got a hair follicle to clone it. Still can’t believe Giovanni kicked me off that team because I was growing too attached. Of course I’d grow attached! I was making clones of Mew, they were adorable! They were all amorphous blobby failures except for one, but I still loved all of them...I should have gone back and taken them all away from there, but I was too scared...so many regrets...I guess that’s one of the reasons I confronted Team Rocket about Marowak and Cubone. I couldn’t see any more Pokemon suffer.  
Wait...what was I saying?  
Oh yeah, it was only many years later that you came to visit. But, it wasn’t you. Not all of you anyway. You told me you had come across an Arbok in the woods, and before you knew what was happening it had caught ahold of Cubone and was constricting it while sidling back into the brush. Kadabra was able to “convince” the Arbok to release Cubone and run away, but...you called Cubone to a PokeBall and had Pidgeot fly you to a PokeCenter…”I should have made Cubone evolve” you kept saying…  
You wanted Cubone to be buried here at the Volunteer House in Lavender Town, where you met. With his mom. You wanted him to be happy.  
I didn’t. That is to say I didn’t want him to be happy in death just yet. Back when I was researching Mew I had found a few fossils(that I very foolishly thought might be pre-historic Mew fossils...they were not) and pieces of Amber with small mosquitoes in them (I know, you’d think those buggers would be extinct too right since Pokemon should be able to consume them en masse? Alas, they are resiliant little...anyway I digress) that still contained minute traces of DNA. So I started a company to try and restore them to life (for research purposes. Introducing pre-historic pokemon to the modern world, in the wild, would be a very bad idea since either they would be killed off quickly or they would have no natural predators and quickly overpopulate their territory….right, where was I). I told you I might be able to help. 

I told my assistant to look out for the animals, and we immediately set off for Cinnabar island’s fossil research laboratory (Oh the memories! That took me back. Apparently since last time I was there they had successfully generated their own pokemon. Porygon I think it was called? Something like that).  
I remember the tension in the room as you released Cubone from the Pokeball. You had let all of your pokemon out to explain what was about to happen, and how you hoped it would work. It had been weeks, but Cubone’s body had still been preserved in the Pokeball. It still looked as though it could have been alive, just sleeping peacefully. The scientist in the lab was surprised by the clear lack of a fossil and started complaining about the ethical ramifications of this; I had to yell at him “THIS IS NO TIME FOR ETHICS! THIS IS A TIME TO HELP A KID AND HIS POKEMON!” I know I know, it is always a time for ethics, but Cubone was way too damn young to die, and I wasn’t about to let it.  
The scientist sighed in resignation as he pulled out a syringe and needle. Your Chansey got a healing egg ready...I think she expected a bit too much from this procedure.  
In the span of a few hours (thanks to seemingly video game logic in this absolutely wonderful technology) an adorable Cubone was swaddled up in a warm blanket in front of us.  
It was...unnerving. Here we had an adorable little clone on one table...and its corpse on the other. It made me realize, truly...there is no way to revive the dead. The clone is its own existance. It won’t hold the same memories as the original, it won’t be the same...unless the original soul can find its way into the body of the clone during the decanting process! HAHAHA Luckily we had thought of this possibility on the way and I made a call to my good friend (who just happened to be the president of a small company called Silph Co.). I remembered they had been working on a product called the Silph Scope for the express purpose of being able to better visualize ghost type pokemon. It had the side effect of also being able to see the spirits of the deceased, and allow for proper communication with them (which as you may not know is how Red soothed Marowak’s soul way back when). We were able to use the Silph Scope to see Cubone’s soul and guide it back to the new body! It worked! The new body became a perfect match! Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, it was kind of dumb to expect Cubone to have the same memories, but having the same soul was amazing in and of itself! I remember you asking if we could bring back Cubone’s mom with this same tech, since we still had her skull...I remember crying at having to respond that her soul had already been soothed and had gone to heaven/the ether/whatever you will call it when you read this (I prefer heaven...I prefer the idea of returning to my pokemon when I leave).  
Your pokemon seemed excited as well, particularly Kadabra! It was so excited it evolved on the spot, which normally only happens when something traumatic (like being traded to another trainer) happens!  
You stayed with me for a few months after that. It was like witnissing the first time you came to the Volunteer House, the first time you met Cubone. Except now you had a whole sleu of other friends with you, all of you caring for Cubone the same way. Cubone itself was a lot cuter too. I guess not having memory of one’s mother would kind of remove the need to wear the mother’s skull. Who knew?

When you all left, the house felt empty. I mean, obviously still full due to the other pokemon there...but it felt like part of my heart had left again. I looked forward to seeing you all again, and talking with you about your adventures and what new pokemon you found and new friends you made; flying on Pidgeot, floating with Alakazam, eating Chansey’s hard-boiled eggs. You guys grew on me.

Your Alakazam transmitted his memories to me to tell me what happened.  
You had been researching in Mt. Moon when there was a cave-in. Your pokemon were fine in their PokeBalls...but they hadn’t been able to react in time. You were killed instantly by a falling boulder. When they reacted and came out...Cubone...refused to believe it. The other pokemon didn’t have the heart to pull him away...It was like that for a while. The miasma became so strong the others couldn’t come close, but Cubone brought you berries and leaves that you enjoyed while traveling. The bugs got them. After a short while longer they got you too. Your skull finally fell off your body...only then was Cubone willing to accept it...to leave...but even then not really. He remembered stories that you and your pokemon told him about his own death and revival. He took the Silph Scope out of your pack and found your soul, still nearby, still wanting to be with your pokemon even after the end. Haha, definitely something you would do. When Cubone told Alakazam and the rest, the excitement was palpable! 

You can probably guess what happened next. When they came to the Volunteer House, Cubone was wearing your skull (It was probably the most disturbed I’d ever been, and I live next to a cemetary)! After learning the specifics of the situation though, I have to admit I found it endearing. Cubone valued you like a mother. Heck, for all intents and purposes, you were his mother! The Pokemon brought your skull (and soul) back to the lab and gave your soul a new body. Your Dad would have flipped out if he were still alive. But I guess you have new parents now, a new starting point. I know your pokemon will take good care of you as you develop, and I hope you grow up to be strong and kind, and ideally meet a nice woman who you can start a family with. I’m sure your pokemon would be happy to have grandchildren that far in the future, considering how they are with you now. 

I hope I can still be around when you are old enough to read this. If I am not, though, please know that I love you like my own child; I was, am, and will always be proud of you; and that I earnestly hope that your love of Pokemon will only grow with age.

Yours sincerely,  
Mr. Fuji

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came up due to a comic I saw recently, Cubone pointing to his mother's skull in the Cinnabar Pokemon Fossil Lab. This got me thinking of a few things:  
> 1) If every Cubone wears its mothers skull, that means that for every birth at least one adult Marowak is consumed, which means there is no population gain, which means Cubone should be extinct (this has nothing to do with the story)  
> 2) What would happen if the trainer died before the Cubone (has everything to do with this story)?


End file.
